Books published by Chipmunkapublishing

Description This is a collection of poems written in 80s and 90s, to use words to get feelings out in a sort of poetic way. Many of the issues that bothered me then have become big topics, such as ecology, the questioning of capitalist and gun wielding philosophies.Hopefully reading these poems will make people think about what their own values are, how they perceive life at the moment.

Description 'This Tangled Web' is one woman's journey from victim to survivor. It is the untangling of a web created by the pain of childhood sexual abuse. The author brings you to the centre of the web through her poetry and art, allowing you to see the journey through her eyes. This book has been written with other survivors in mind. It was always Kate's desire to one day use her poetry for the benefit of other survivors. Remembering her own unquenchable thirst for knowledge and something to relate to...this is one woman's attempt to untangle the web and help other survivors to achieve this too.

Description Using diaries written from an early age, Rebecca gives an evocative portrayal of her childhood in Hertfordshire. She reflects on her upbringing with her parents and her four siblings and tries to trace the origins of her mental health problems. She acknowledges the difficulties in her past such as her father's heavy drinking and the stresses within the family which pervade into her grown up self. Many of the memories are happy ones but there is an underlying insecurity and anxiety which linger into her adult life. About the AuthorRebecca Morgan was born in Hertfordshire in 1951. She obtained a degree in Modern History and Politics from Sheffield University in 1973, followed by a Post-Graduate Diploma in Librarianship from Birmingham Polytechnic in 1975.In 1978 she became a Chartered Librarian and has worked for 20 years for Sheffield Libraries, Archives and Information Service.She has experienced severe depression, postnatal depression and psychotic illness during her life. Rebecca is married with one son and lives in Sheffield. This is her second book, following her vivid picture of her years of mental illness in Hertfordshire and Sheffield portrayed in her first book: "The Nest of Sanity" also published by Chipmunka Publishing.Rebecca Morgan is a pseudonym.

Description A large part of Britain's care home sector has in recent years been outsourced to private companies. From time to time appalling conditions in some of these homes are disclosed to the public by undercover journalists. But, unfortunately, no significant change seems to happen as a result. Very soon it's all 'forgotten' and life goes back to 'normal'. This book is different from many of these newspaper stories and TV documentaries. It is different because it's written by an insider with extensive personal knowledge of the profit-obsessed industry behind the abuse. As a trained nurse Lars G Petersson has spent years working in British nursing homes - from Surrey in the south to Edinburgh in the north - and in abuse.uk he takes his reader on a detailed tour behind the curtains of a world where so many Britons end their lives in utter misery. By doing so, he paints a picture of not only shockingly low standards and abusive care but also of systematic staff exploitation, toothless regulators and a catastrophically flawed government control system. Abuse.uk is a book about a failed system that betrays those it was meant to shelter and care for. It is also a book about a business that closes its ranks against the 'pestilential' dissident and supports the perpetrators' efforts to keep it all in the dark.About the AuthorLars G Petersson is a Swedish-born Londoner, activist and free-lance writer with special interest in peace, mental health, social justice and human rights. He is the author of a large number of articles (most of which were published in Danish newspapers and journals) and one previous book, Deserters - a story about German war resisters from World War II. Trained as a nurse - with speciality in mental health, social issues and addiction - he has persistantly used his professional knowledge and insight to disclose matters otherwise hidden from public scrutiny. In a number of cases this has led to serious public debate and major improvements for vulnerable people.

Description This book has been written out of the recent experience of two and a half years of severe depression. The author had herself been a social worker with counsellor training. Depression is a serious illness or mental condition which crushes your capacity to help yourself. The majority of self-help books, and even counselling itself, seem geared to mild or moderate depression. That is the kind of the depression which will respond to "think positive" ideas, a walk in the park, a talk with a friend.Getting a reliable diagnosis is difficult. But a diagnosis is important. Treatments for mild depression don't help if you have severe depression. But the symptoms can be easily mis-read and the severity of a condition underestimated. It can then be a struggle to get the support you need. In fact, the most important message might be to encourage you to believe that you will get through it in spite of everything. But you won't believe that whilst you are in the firmest grip of the depression.Severely depressed, it is as if you are in a parallel universe. This kind of depression is not the result of any lack of 'positive thinking'; it is not a failure to deal with the ups and downs of life, nor a depressive attitude towards life, as some have called it. It is not any kind of failure. No one is yet absolutely certain how it comes about - but a genetic predisposition and the trigger of overwhelming stress is a likely explanation. Many caring, competent, intelligent and courageous people - have spent time, sometimes years, in their own private mental dungeon of depression. Those individuals who are insensitive, who think mainly about themselves and don't really care much about others may be less likely to fall ill in this way!Only those who have been severely depressed can really understand it. It includes at various times an overpowering sadness, desolation, intense anger, fear of other people, withdrawal, a hunted feeling, impatience, forgetfulness, self-neglect, a strong and persistent, automatic death wish, exhaustion and panic. On the other hand, you may not feel or display any emotion at all with an almost catatonic immobility. Whatever the emotion, it is a desperately lonely state.This book will help you to feel less alone, get to know yourself, suggest ideas to build resistance to depression and also to recognise and take notice of the warning signs.

Description This book consists out of some prose poems and some short poems, in Dutch and English, with on the front side pages the original language, and with on the backside pages the translation. As well as the original text, most often in Dutch, but some short poems were written at first in English, as the translation, is of the hand of the author himself. Also all (later) corrections were done by the author himself.

Description One for Sorry, Two for Joy is set in the early 1900s and tells of the struggle between the members of the Ford family. Reuben Ford fights in the First World War 1914-1918 and is reported missing in action on the Western front in France. This story explains how this devastating news affects his wife Ruth, who has a mental breakdown, and their son Joe and Ruth's parents.About the AuthorDorothy Mitchell lives in Evesham. She has previously published another novel called The Willerby Grange Secret, two poetry books and two children's stories, drawing on her experiences in life in writing in a similar vein to Catherine Cookson and Maeve Binchy. Dorothy is currently working on her next novel which is entitled Abigail Beaumont.

Description "This world that you inhabit is really only your own mind. That is where you truly reside. And everyday you make decisions that affect your life. I give you an account of mine." This strange and thought-provoking story is about a man who experiences a traumatic event in his childhood and then later develops a severe mental disorder in his thirties. His experiences and "delusions" lead him to think that he may have discovered a great secret that concerns all of humanity. Is he sane? And is the world crazy? Here is a conundrum that you can decide for yourselves. About the AuthorDavid Poulter was born in Sunderland on the 18 February 1965. He attended local schools in the Tyne and Wear area and chose to study art at Sunderland Polytechnic and then Leeds University where he gained a degree in Fine Art. He has lived in various parts of England and Ireland but now currently resides in Taiwan. He has worked as an art teacher and freelance artist but now teaches English. He still practices art.

Description Depression Can Be Fun is an initiative of Helen McNallen who has suffered from Clinical and Bipolar Depression and wants to help others and spread the word. The book's name originated from the 'black comedy' of her experiences of manic depression and is certainly not meant to offend or belittle Depression. Humour is a powerful antidote to Depression as she found out and you will find out in the book. It is also an acceptable medium to explain Depression and take away the misunderstandings and stigma still sometimes attached to depression. The book is concise, accurate, humorous, sympathetic and informative all at once and gives a relaxed approach to dealing with depression and reminds us that although life is hard, if you look closely and long enough, you will find something to make you smile. Whether you are depressed or not, we will all encounter depressed people, and understanding depression and mental illness can make us more helpful to them. About the AuthorHelen McNallen is 41 and lives in Nottinghamshire. Helen was diagnosed with physical and mental exhaustion in 1998, with clinical depression in 1999 and then bi-polar depression in 2003.Having suffered a breakdown as a trader in the city of London and subsequent depression for many years, she is keen to help others avoid the terrible grips of Depression and its side effects by raising awareness of depression and supporting people in any way she can. Helen has set up a website to support and inform depression sufferers and their carers, www.depressioncanbefun.com and has written Depression Can Be Fun to help others capture that glimmer of hope that she lost sight of for a long time. Helen also works with the NHS and is involved in the Time to Change nationwide anti-stigma campaign.

Self-harm/injury is something that impinges on the lives of a significant number of people. It has become an issue that now attracts a range of attitudes and assumptions, not all of which are positive.Despite the vast amount of information that is now available through a range of different sources there is still a limited understanding of what self-harm/injury represents and how people who self-harm/injure should be most effectively supported.Differences that exist in the acknowledgement of what self-harm/injury is, why people engage in it and how they should be supported include:¿ A frequent link in 'professional' literature with other concepts such as mental illness, suicide¿ Self-injury as different to self-harm or self-harm considered as an 'umbrella' term for a range of different activities including self-injury¿ Why people self-harm/injure¿ Interventions that support individuals including who might be best placed to offer these

Description Sarah uses her many life experiences to explore the human psyche. Sarah's love of words and the poignant pictures they evoke shine through in many of her pieces of work. Although many of the subjects are of a serious nature her profound sense of humour and her understanding of the absurdity of life are self evident.This book will appeal to a wide audience, each picking out a particular poem that communicates to them as an individual. Sarah's use of words to paint mind pictures, such as two little shoes, where she uses that as a symbolism of loss, will catch the imagination that perhaps visual art some times can not. About the AuthorSarah then trained and worked as a nurse doing stints at General, Psychiatric and Mentally Handicap hospitals.Sarah was a student nurse in a psychiatric hospital in Gloucester when she became pregnant with her oldest son Jonathan. The father was not in a position to marry her though he would have liked too. So she found herself in a mother and baby home in Bristol where Jonathan was born at South Meads hospital. Sarah then took a live in nursing job at Bridgwater Somerset where she met Brian Cavill, the man who was to become her husband. They married in Jan 1967. Sarah had a happy 6 months when in June 1967 Jonathan contracted T.B. Meningitis he was in a coma for 6 weeks and was badly brain damaged.Sarah and Brian took him home and looked after him as best they could, while Jonathan was in a coma his sister Angela was born.After Sarah's fourth and last child was born she was diagnosed bi-polar disorder and spent many months over the following years in Psychiatric units. The result was her marriage broke down and was divorced in 2005 Sarah was separated when she met William Dodd (Billy) they have an instant rapport and in 2008 he asked her to move in with him. This she did and is very happy, hoping to be married to him next year, 2010.

Description Described as "...probably the most entertaining account of mania you'll ever read...", this raw, inspirational, story shows that a man can live a full, productive life with a serious mental illness. In 2006, Keith, in the midst of an immense undiagnosed manic episode, cut a swath through the Corridor of Dreams - the swanky swathe of the West side of LA stretching from the Hollywood Hills to the boulevards of Beverly Hills, believing he would be an epochal intellectual cum gay Hollywood superstar cum spiritual messiah. Of course, he became none of these, and crashed spectacularly.With its tale of luxury goods, spiritual discovery, thrust for glory, brilliant ideas, not so brilliant ideas, one impersonation of the Anti-Christ, fist-fights, arrest by the LAPD, and, ultimately, a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, it asks if the gleaming personality he became - now chained up by mood stabilizers - is the real self; and, if it is not, is there any such thing as a real self?About the AuthorKeith Adams perennially wonders how an abnormally tall, working-class boy from the North Sea coast of England ended up in a house in Hollywood with two dogs, and his partner, a leading medical research scientist at UCLA. Although he writes for a living (computer code), he always hoped to do "real writing", from experience. That opportunity came from being diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2006, after a serious brush with insanity. At one point, he seriously believed he would be a combination gay superstar / epochal intellectual / latter day Messiah. Quite obviously, he became none of those things, but he did survive the inevitable crash to tell the tale, thanks to the support of friends and family.

Description The book is a story of my childhood written in poems. I am an incest survivor. As a child I was forced to take part in many rituals as my family worshiped satan. Many times I thought I would be killed. I was also forced to abuse others. These poems were written over seven years as I learned these things about my family and myself, as I learned the history that I was brought up to believe wasn't true. Instead of a perfect christian home, I was abused, and brought up to worship satan.

Description Passages from the search for eternal love is a book of fiction about a community called Illigruum House and two women Eva and Rosa. Eva is an artist who has accepted being alone as a necessary artistic path. But when Rosa a beautiful and wise woman in her seventies invites Eva to join her on the course learning through love Rosa offers to show Eva her true path. Eva finds that through Rosa'a stories of love and a spiritual meeting in the caves of Bearn a new way of thinking about love, the concept of abundance, and a universal love that will change her life forever.

Description Barsteadworth College is a book about workplace bullying, the damage it causes and institutional suppression of the truth about both.Workplace bullying is a hot contemporary topic. It crops up in conversations between friends and colleagues and not infrequently in the television, radio and print media. It can often seem that everyone has either been bullied at work or knows someone who has. However, cases where a victim of workplace bullying has taken on 'the system' and won are few and, because of this, are big news when they happen. This is due in no small part to the routine use of 'gagging clauses' in 'compromise agreements', which bring to a close the one-sided battles that take place between bullied employees and their employers/managers. Victimised employees can find themselves placed in situations where they have no alternative but to resign and then contractually prohibited from speaking about their experiences by the agreement that terminates their employment. Thus, it is ensured that the extent of the kind of abuses described in this book remains hidden and that one of the routine social sicknesses of our time and the knock-on actual sicknesses that result stay largely invisible and unchallenged. The author, Dr Stephen Riley, has experienced workplace bullying and its damaging consequences firsthand and, like many, he is prohibited from speaking by a 'compromise agreement'. In Barsteadworth College he therefore uses fiction as means of describing and analysing the issues: Dr Dan Ripley, a Fine Art Lecturer, moves from Manchester and takes a job at a provincial art college in the south of England. After a time, a new manager arrives and starts to appoint friends and family and to create preferential working conditions for herself and her clique. Those outside of the clique - Dan and two others - are then subjected to a wide range of undermining activities from their line-manager, including staged public humiliations at meetings, unmanageable workloads and endlessly contradictory instructions. The book describes the gradual corrosive effects of the bullying: fatigue, loss of confidence, confusion and then depression. It then describes what happens when Dan complains: the college's managers close ranks and connive with the bullying line-manager to discredit the allegations, eliminate evidence and vilify the complainant. Ultimately, Barsteadworth College is an appeal to law and policy makers to address the current situation, which is hopelessly skewed in favour of workplace bullies and against their victims and, within this, to address the question of how, when suitable policies are in place, institutions can be made to adhere to them and be answerable if they do not.

Description Amongst Jason's rap and hip hop influences are Ice T, NWA, De La Soul, PM Dawn, Eminem, Dr Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, Ice Cube, Naughty By Nature, Sugar Hill Gang, 2 Pac, Notorious Big. Jason sees rap and hip hop as a potential force for social good. About the Author Jason Pegler is known internationally for his work as a social entrepreneur. He was born in 1975. He was diagnosed with manic depression in 1992. This is his sixth book. He is the author of 'A Can of Madness', 'Curing Madness', 'The Ultimate Guide To Well Being' and 'Mental Health Publishing and Empowerment'. His first three books can be bought together in the trilogy Bipolar, Recovery and NLP. Jason is the CEO of Chipmunkapublishing and Co-Founder of The Chipmunka Foundation. He dedicates his life to empowering people with mental health issues so that they can fulfill their potential and help others. Book Extract Why a rap book? I have always been inspired by music and rap has always been one of my favourite genre's. When I first heard NWA in 1988 I started to love rap. I liked the testerone pumped music and the wordplay and also the powerful messages you can convey in raps just as you can in stories. The creativity and word play made me write one or two raps straight away and always made me interested in the music. I wrote a lot of poems/raps in 1992 when I was seventeen. A couple of thousand actually but through them all away when I was manic.